Skiers find it extremely awkward and tiring to carry their skis in their hands or on their shoulders when going to or coming from ski slopes.
Various devices have already been proposed for attempting to avoid such inconvenience.
For example, hand carts or other wheeled devices have been proposed.
Another proposal consists in providing the skis with handles which are fixed thereto by hinges or which are independent from the skis but are provided with means for fastening to the skis (such as clamps or belts) suitable for surrounding the skis in order to hold them together reliably while they are connected to the handle.
One example of such a handle is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,920 (Green). The device described in this document comprises, more particularly, a ski-receiving support and two handles pivotally mounted on said ski-receiving support.
Another device suitable for dragging skis along the ground is described in German patent publication No. DE-C-407 233 (Seidel). This document describes a clamp which is closed by a pivoting loop and which is provided with two external rings to which a belt is fastened. This device is very complex and bulky in that it requires a spacer to be used (as shown in FIG. 5 of said document), or else it requires rings to be present at the ends of the skis (as shown in FIG. 6 of said document). As a result this device is not used in practice.
Another device is described in Swiss patent publication No. CH-A-596 857 (Witmer). This device comprises a C-shaped ski support for receiving the skis in a cantilever configuration and connected to a belt which is held in the hand. The cantilever configuration of the skis makes the device tiring to hold in the hand.
Mention may also be made of U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,420 (Oellerich). However, this document relates to an anti-theft device intended to be fixed on a ski rack rather than to a portable device for transporting skis. The device described in this patent specification comprises a ski-receiving device which is closed by a flap which is then locked in place by a padlock.
All of the above-mentioned devices suffer from drawbacks which mean that they are little used in practice.
In particular, these devices are generally heavy, bulky and very expensive, and as a result they are not usable by skiers on or near ski slopes.
Further, the use of carts and handles or equivalent means as proposed heretofore is often made difficult by snow or ice accumulating on such devices, and indeed they can be become completely unusable when frozen solid.
These various devices all include components which must be moved relative to one another prior to use, and such components are therefore capable of being locked in a single relative disposition by ice. They are thus not particularly suitable for use with skis.
For example, in German patent document No. DE-C-407 233 the closure loop is pivotally mounted relative to the body of the clamp.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,754,420 the closure flap is displaced in translation, and the padlock also includes mutually displaceable components.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,780,920 the handles are pivotally mounted relative to the ski-receiving support.
The problem encountered is thus to design a device for transporting skis which is cheap, light, compact, and above all which is simple and easy to use, while remaining completely insensitive to ice and snow, which means it must not require component parts to move relative to one another prior to use.